Little Goffy

Waterfront mansion!!! Oh no, Jesse has bought Perth's waterfront! Clearly he plans to use it for recovery sessions.

Geez Dazzle you're on the sads about Hogan today - in two different threads. Though both relevant. Hogan will stay at Melbourne over Freo because it will be a career path choice between emulating Norm Smith or Matthew Richardson. (For the record, Richardson has played in just three finals, for one win, Norm Smith played in 16, for 10 wins, 1 draw, 5 losses, including a triple-premiership which he was a decisive factor in. Just in case anyone forgets!) As for the complex issue of who fits where, personally I wouldn't mind a structure of 2xCHF and one resting ruckman at FF. I think the 'modern game' demands a workrate from CHF that is more than any one player can contribute. By alternating who goes for the searching lead and who lurks menacingly in and out of the forward 50, both CHFs are always offering a target while also allowing for variation in the intensity of effort/comparative rest. I think it would be very good, especially for a young team, to have certainty that there will always be someone there to kick to when they look up.

I guess we just have to hope he buys two houses in Melbourne.

Cross and Howe player 22 games each in 2015, so there's a little room opened up there in the best 22. The other already delisted players shared about 30 games between them in 2015. After that, its a matter of how the competition for spots comes through, and which of the kids (and veterans) do or do not progress well in 2016. Honestly, how long has it been since there was real competition for spots in the best 22 at Melbourne? I don't think it even happened much in the Daniher years - we had a handy group of very good core players, but it tailed off and there were always 'questionable' inclusions and gap-fillers in every area. If some of the players we've traded in aren't getting many games in 2016, then the trades don't look so great but it also likely means we will all be quite content with our overall list development, and probably delighted about the reduced injury toll, too.

Speeding tickets = "nazi-ism"? [censored]. Some people really work hard to find ways to be victims, eh.

For Melbourne, its a 'non-threatening' year for free agency, but the opportunities now seem limited as well. Given our salary cap room its a shame that some of the prime midfielders which would have been 2016 free agents have been locked away. Sidebottom would still be an ideal player to grab. At the very least we should make sure the magpies spend all year feeling anxious. Its a far cry from when Hanneberry, Hartlett, Ziebell, Pendlebury Armitage and Redden were also on the 2016 FA list. NB: Free Agency remains a schmozzle in every way and is gradually damaging the balance of the competition.

I do like that when forward he can lead effectively into space, take a mark, and quickly look for the next option to move the ball further into attack. If Gold Coast were happy to move from pick 3, it does suggest they don't mind which of the top players they get... unfortunately that points to being happy with getting one of the talls we might want, that are hovering in that top half dozen. Throw in Essendon's needs - their only tall players are Hooker, Hurley, Daniher, Bellchambers and McKernan - and we could see three good talls gone in three picks. Although it is funny, looking at the footywire lists, Essendon have almost as many players listed as midfielder/forward as they have 'just' midfield. If that is their vision of the future of AFL, then they might grab Balic with one of their picks.

Is it a yarmulke sales agent? A duduk instructor? Shisha repairman? Chocolate-coated date importer? Saffron farmer? Diamond wholesaler? Race horse trainer?

Headlines of the future - Shot at goal after the siren to decide a game - "Didymus? No he didn't!" Suspended - "Blanket ban: Didy to miss." I swear, if this guy plays 200 games and still doesn't end up murdering the Channel 7 commentary team, it will be an achievement as great as any in football. We already know Briant Taylor will obsess over it.

Well, I just got pointed to instagram and Jake Melksham's profile and I can tell you, Saints aren't the only ones with ex-Bomber problems. There are picture up of him at a party, wearing skimpy speedos. I really hope our leadership group has the strength to bring him under control. I mean, they were really skimpy and I'm not sure the Australian community is ready to forgive this. Ah hell, it gets worse. He took one of those selfies where you lean to the side with the leaning tower of Pisa in the background. I hope Jones can get in touch with him before he takes a photo pretending to eat the Eiffel Tower.

My contribution, based on hearsay and chatter - Pick 3 - Club is reported to be very focused on Darcy Parish. Skilled and smart midfielder, not soft. Kind of self-explanatory. Looks like a Tudor prince though, which is a problem. Pick 7 - I think everyone is agreed a long-term second tall forward is needed. I've been persuaded that Charlie Curnow can be a forward-mid the way Petracca can be a mid-forward. That is to say; brutally. I would also be perfectly happy if Aaron Francis was brought in with either of these picks, to bring a bit of skill and smarts to our defensive group, or as a true utility. Pick 46 - James Parsons is a tall lightly built wingman with a good kick. Two main reasons to draft him are to make Parish-Parsons jokes, and to give Pickett Fence nightmares. Pick 50 - Gach Nyuon. We need long-term coverage of ruck stocks and I like that Nyuon is a completely different type to King. Also as a nice bonus he's from down near Casey and part of a migrant community that is disproportionately building its connections to Australia through football. By late in the draft I'm usually on the hunt for entertaining names, so tall defenders Glass-McCasker and Uebergang would keep me happy. Midfielder Ben Crocker is also suitable provided we can also recruit someone named Schitt in the near future. Even a Schmitt would do. Speaking of great names, VanDenBerg obviously gets a rookie upgrade at 82. This does leave the question of where Jake Lovett fits in. Can a father-son be rookied? Do we still have players waiting to be cut?

With trade week settled, time to declare our fantasies for the draft. What we know (from the hatches matches and despatches thread) MELBOURNE In: Thomas Bugg (GWS Giants) Ben Kennedy (Collingwood) Jake Melksham (Essendon) Joel Smith (Rookie B) Out: Rohan Bail (delisted) Daniel Cross (retired) Jack Fitzpatrick (Hawthorn) Jeremy Howe (Collingwood) Mark Jamar (retired) Jordie McKenzie (delisted) Aidan Riley (delisted) Jimmy Toumpas (Port Adelaide) That's 8 players out, and 3 added, plus a rookie B for fun. Leaving us with five spots in the main draft. Picks we've got - 3, 7, 46, 50, 82. Fire away!

It's the day for it. We're just now getting in touch with Marty McFly to get his signature for next season, last season, and 1987.

The players coming in are all faster and more 'aggressive' than the players going out. I'm very happy with that. I'm also very happy knowing that the club has targeted a top kid from well in advance, and is so sure of them that they've gone to great lengths to secure the pick to guarantee getting the player. Even better, if we end up going Parish+Curnow, everyone on here will have someone to be happy about from the draft, and we can spend the next decade running a thread debating who is better of the two.

Well, that's the best thing about us having pick 3 and 7. We're in a position to be the club that takes whichever player Melbourne foolishly overlooks at 3!

We crawled, then we walked, then we stomped. I'm sure nobody remembers, but I get all ranty about the value of going 'high-low' in the draft and using demonstrated 'adequate' players for depth. Well, that's what we did and we did it efficiently. Now an eye (and a massive warchest) to next year's fat list of free agents. Y'know, the guys we wont need that first round pick to recruit.

It would appear that the footy dept achieved exactly ALL of its trading targets. Turns out we played the 'academy draft points' game better than any other club. Turns out we got all of our trade-in player targets at appropriately low cost. Turns out we did manage to line up pick 3 to target the player we've obviously identified long ago, despite Howe being a [censored] goblin. Turns out we could get ourselves a second top-10 pick (lucky 7, too!), and made sure we could pick up one of the multiple good tall forward options available. Overall movement; In - 3, 7, Kennedy, Bugg, Melksham Out - 6, 25, [First rounder 2016], Howe, Toumpas It's a nice move to trade forward a year, too. Gives the additional gun kid a year of being Roos-ed.

Can we please nickname him "Windshield"?

We've held onto the best of them (Watts and Trengove), such as they are. We've clearly improved our recruiting beyond recognition. Our drafting nadir was 2011, with not even 50 games from the lot of them, and not a lot to show for the trading either. Since then it has steadily improved, to the point where the Demon's 2014 draft has all seven players picked looking like possible keepers. I'm gradually becoming less distressed.

Carlton's Menzel is being pursued by Adelaide, reportedly for pick 29 and Sam Kerridge. Lately, ex-Carlton forwards go almost as well as ex-Brisbane mids, and Menzel certainly has some ability, though inconsistent. I'd be interested in how people rate him. I fully expect a lot of 'Jack Watts only shorter' misgivings. Meanwhile, I was looking at our list to see if we had anything equivalent to Kerridge to offer, and noticed that really just about every young player we have left is someone you'd want to hang on to. Good times.

I don't see trading away next year's pick as much different to trading one in the current year. It's the same balancing of searching for new kids v getting known quantities now. Hmm, what rpfc said about known quantities got me thinking - given the current lack of gross talent to fill teams, does that make our approach of targeting 'adequate for AFL' players more appropriate to the times? Could also point to why clubs seem to be going high-low in how they value draft picks. Could be that there is a general move to building up a best 22 (or 25) as much as possible and then accepting the need for a long 'tail' of new and developing players with a pretty high churn rate, hoping that enough will show promise in any given year to cover injuries. It will be interesting to see how the pay spread for AFL players goes. Will we see more players earning higher salaries AND more players earning lower salaries, with fewer around that average amount? Easy one to measure, since the salary cap standardises average salary. Just keep an eye on how the median and standard deviation go and we'll know.

Alright, digging around, here's what I understand - Kennedy is a very speedy and agile shortarse left-footer who is a goal kicking ball magnet midfielder/small forward at VFL level but got used a lot as the sub at AFL level and never got a run of form going. Since Collingwood seem to be developing their young talent about as well as Demons 2012,, maybe we will win out of this.

I really looks like every club went into this deal trying to get rid of players and looking for suckers to take them on. I'm a little disappointed nobody actually did the "We'll give you pick 20 and Kennedy for pick 25" routine. I can only assume that our recruiting team see some sneaky value in the mid-late picks. The trades in this draft seem to suggest that - 1 - everyone wants to hang onto their very early picks. 2 - picks in the 25-50 range seem to be valued higher than usual. Maybe it's a weak draft with a long tail? Like an emaciated apatosaurus.

Jess Trengove, what a legend. She can run a marathon in less time than Picket Fence can sustain a self-imposed ban! Currently at about top 1 in 40 million for fitness in the human species.

Pfft. Gawn and Kent's trajectories are remarkably comparable. Flashes showing real ability to deliver in a role, mixed with a long tangle of injury in their early years. I think we'd all be thrilled if Kent had a breakthrough as decisive as Gawn did, too.